Leona Maguire’s late summer revival continued as she fired a brilliant opening round of 66 to share second place at the CPKC Women’s Open in Toronto.
Maguire had all facets of her game working well and she feels the key was only missing one fairway while she took just 25 blows on the greens.
The Cavan star birdied the second and holed out from the bunker for another birdie on the par-3 3rd hole before picking up another shot on the par-5 5th to give herself some early momentum.
A dropped shot on 9 was her only blemish on the card and she moved up to five-under courtesy of birdies on the 12th, 14th and 18th to lie just two adrift of Akie Iwai.
“Yeah, pretty happy about how I played. Hit a lot of nice shots today. Hit a lot of fairways, which I feel like is key out here. The rough is pretty thick,” said Maguire.
“It was nice and a few nice putts, and I suppose holing out that bunker shot on the third hole, the par-3, that kind of got the round going.
“Yeah, it was tricky in places. The wind really was up on the front nine, sort of 7, 8, 9, 10 played really tough. And then it was nice the wind dropped off a little bit.”
Maguire, who has made all five of her previous worldwide cuts, knows that she will be able to capitalise on some chances if she can keep the ball in play.
“Yeah, more of the same. I think a lot of fairways and greens. The greens are rolling really nice. These are some of the nicest greens we’ve putted on in quite a while. Just keep giving myself chances.”
Just four days after a breakthrough win in Portland, Japanese star Iwai finished birdie, birdie to leap out in front at Mississauga Golf and Country Club with a seven-under 64.
She has breathing space ahead of Maguire, 15-year-old Canadian amateur Aphrodite Deng Thailand’s Jeeno Thitikul, Mexico’s Gaby Lopez and 2023 winner Megan Khang.
“Last week I won, but already it’s in the past, already past,” said 23-year-old Iwa, who joined twin sister Chisato as a rookie LPGA Tour winner.
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